Can you sleep in a Golf GTI?

I mean really, can you sleep in a golf? And I don’t mean only in an emergency, I mean every few nights! Really, can you even lie down in a VW Golf? We’ll answer this is a bit…

In order to properly assess the situation though, we figured that we should also be investigating whether we can sleep in a Land Rover Defender 110, or a Land Rover Discovery Sport perhaps? Both the old 110s and the Disco Sport are available and not outside the realms of affordability.

There are plenty of videos of people converting 110s in order to go travelling in Southern Africa. But what about long term intercontinental travel? What’s it like on a longer term basis? I’ve been in the back of an old Landy many time – my brother used to have one after all. It’s not big I can tell you! Great for the odd night, and definitely doable in an emergency – but then aren’t most vehicles ok in an emergency?

Land Rover

So today we went down to our local Land Rover dealership with our crazy request. At least we assumed it was a crazy request. After all maybe people often asked them in all seriousness whether they would consider folding down all the rear seats so as to crawl into the back and lie down! Who knew?

They did not! The showroom guys were however super friendly and accommodating, and more than willing to help us in our quest. We’re not sure whether they believed us about our intercontinental travel story though. Maybe they thought we were testing it out for extra-curricular activities 😉

Regardless, we tested a couple of vehicles, a new and an older model. It seemed as if the newer model seats didn’t lie very flat at all. Maybe it was just the way they were set up? The older model third row of seats did lie completely flat, and the second row were pretty flat too – an advancement!

I’m 6 feet tall and I can confirm that I could lie down in the back if I lay diagonally – although it was definitely not the most comfortable. That said, I was not lying on any kind of mattress / padding … maybe I could get used to it? Whether I could do this regularly is doubtful. Although maybe I’m wrong – maybe others can tell me how to do it in comfort.

What I can say though is that both models – HSE luxury and HSE trims – were super comfortable in the front seats – quite remarkable! I guess that’s what you get when you’re not in a performance touring car 🙂

Golf GTI

Anyway, on return to the house, having spent time crawling in and out of the boots of Land Rovers, we decided to test how decent our Golf GTI was for sleeping. And surprisingly, once all of the seats had been folded down, I found that I could lie down diagonally in the Golf too! Bizarre – remember I’m 6 feet tall, and the golf is a medium sized hatchback! Ok, the space was definitely more limited, and I had to bend my legs a bit, but in an emergency – it was definitely a goer! Incredible … yet again the Golf GTI comes up trumps!

So would we sleep in a Golf GTI?

In those rarer situations when security is a risk, or when it’s pouring down with rain / snow and there’s no accommodation nearby, or when you’re just sheer exhausted … definitely! But more regularly, no.

And would we buy a Land Rover to sleep in?

I’d buy a landy for many reasons, but sleeping in one is not really one of them. Again, very occasional sleeping use – more so than in an emergency – is fine. Anything more isn’t worth it in our view.

Wow – consumer advice – who knew!!